THIBODAUX, La. - The Nicholls State University softball team will welcome Southeastern for its home finale, hosting the Lions for a three-game series starting with a Friday (April 17) doubleheader at Swanner Field at Geo Surfaces Park.

Friday's twin-bill is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. while Saturday's finale will start at noon. All three games will stream on ESPN+.

Nicholls (26-18, 14-7 SLC) and Southeastern (39-10, 20-1 SLC) are both coming off series wins in their lone midweek league games of the year. The Colonels duplicated their series from the weekend at HCU, winning the first and third games against AMCC to stay in contention to host one of the brackets in the Southland Conference Tournament.

Nicholls enters the final stretch in third place, trailing UIW by 1.0 game in the standings. The Colonels tooks the series against the Cardinals, which end the season on the road against first-place Southeastern. 

The Lions come to town looking for their first regular season title in program history. SLU holds a 5.0 game lead over UIW so needs one win to clinch at least a share of the title and two would secure an outright title. 

The Colonels have had success in the regular season against the Lions the last two years, winning each series two games to one. But SLU came out on top in their two most recent postseason matchups against the Colonels, including winning the finale in the Hammond Bracket last year before going on to defeat McNeese for the tournament title. 

Nicholls sports a .297 batting average on the year, led by Claire Sisco (.384) who has the fourth most hits in the Southland with 58. Sisco already had a hot start for the week, tripling and hitting a walk-off homer in the series win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. 

Erin Krause (.338) and Reagan Heflin (.316) are two of seven starters batting .300 or better in the Colonel lineup and are tied for the team lead with 31 RBIs. Heflin leads the Colonels with 10 multi-RBI games which includes five games with three or more. 

Molly Yoo added two more wins earlier in the week and now has 15 on the year to go along with a 2.78 ERA. She ranks third in the Southland with 88 strikeouts on the year. 

Southeastern ranks second in the SLC with a .338 batting average and fields one of the top pitching staffs in the nation with a collective 1.61 ERA. The staff has 13 shutouts on the year while holding offenses to a .180 batting average.

SLU is led on offense by Shelby Morris who is batting .419 with 25 RBIs. Marie Detillier has been the top run producer, ranking second in the league with 45 while batting .309. 

On Deck
Nicholls will close out the regular season with a series on the road at Northwestern State, starting on Friday, April 24.